Vending machine



Oct. 31, 1939. w. Ammscq 5T AL 2,177,965

VENDING MACHINE Filed March 20, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet l Walter/1. Tra 90! and William Pafzer INVENTORS v r BY C/ww M THEIR ATTORNEY.

Oct 31, 1 939.

W. A. TRATSCH ET AL VENDING MACHINE Filed March 20, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 n r mm a MP A m 1 a WW INVENTORS ATTORN;

BY W THEIR Patented Oct. 31, 1939 UNITED STATES VENDING MACHINE Walter A. Tratsch and William Patzer, Chicago, 111;

Application March 20, 1937, Serial No. 132,069

2 Claims.

This invention relates to vending machines, and more particularly to dispensing mechanism of general application and especially suited to the dispensation of packaged articles such as cigarettes, candy and the like, and the invention includes, among its important objects, mechanism having a plurality of shelves or traps pivotally mounted and held in horizontal article-sustaining position by individual latch means adapted to be tripped by coin-freed mechanism, to permit a lowermost one of the shelves to fall or pivot from horizontal position and discharge the article into a chute.

A further object is the provision of a plurality of article-bearing shelves arranged in tiers and pivotally mounted for movement from latched horizontal position so as to permit the gravitating movement of the supported article toward a discharge chute, each of the shelves having individual latch means and each tier of shelves or platforms having a traveling latch-release mechanism movable successively upward into engagement with individual latch means to release the same for discharge of the merchandise.

Still another object is the provision of a device of the character described in which merchandise is supported on a plurality of traps or platforms, arranged in tiers one above another, and manually operable mechanism for successively releasing the lowermost ones of said traps or platforms to effect the gravitating movement and discharge of merchandise therefrom.

Other and more specific details of construction and novel aspects of the invention will appear as the following specification proceeds in view of the annexed drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a merchandise vending machine embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical side section along lines 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary horizontal section partly in plan, taken along lines 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Figs. 4 and 5 are opposite elevational details of the traveling latch-release mechanism and re spectively taken along lines 4-4 and 55 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a front elevation of the traveling latch mechanism and traps or shelves; while Fig, '7 is a side elevation along lines 1-4 of Fig. 6.

A vending machine embodying a preferred form of the invention includes, as seen in Fig. 1, a cabinet l0 having a transparent front panel 12, a

merchandise discharge bin I4, a plurality of manually operable selecting levers I B, and a coin-freed release device I8.

The merchandise storing means seen in Fig. 6 includes a plurality of traps or shelves 20 pivotally supported along one edge, as at 22, on up- 8 right frame members 24 and arranged one above another.

Disposed oppositely of the upright 24 is another upright frame member 26 (see also Figs.

3 and 4) on which are pivotally mounted, as at 10 28, a series of latch members 30 arranged one above another, and one of each of the same'being positioned substantially opposite one of the shelves 20 in its horizontal position, each of these latch members having an extending nose part 15 32 which underlies its corresponding shelf or trap 20 and holds the same in horizontal position, so that articles of merchandise 2| (Fig. 6) may be supported one above another upon these traps or shelves. 20

In Figs. 4 and 5 it will be observed that in a preferred arrangement of the invention, the upright frame members 24 and 26 may be in the form of channel-members, and each of the trap latches 3B is provided with a laterally extending 25 ear 34 which extends through an arcuate slot 36 in the upright 26 and into the channeled part thereof (Fig. 5) for engagement with one end of a coil spring 38 which is anchored at its other I end 40 to the bottom of the channel part of the 30 upright. By this means the latches are severally pivoted with their nose portions 32 extending in a lateral direction from the upright 26 toward their respective traps or'shelves 20 (see also Fig. '7). 35

Positioned at one (left) side of the upright 26, as seen in Fig. 6, are two substantially fiat upright ratchet rods or members 42 and 44. The former, termed for convenience the driving rod, is reciprocally movable by virtue of its support 40 which includes a pair of spaced headed pins 46 and 46' extended into the main supporting structure, which are received in elongated slots 41 and. 4'! in the rod 42 and permit movement of the latter in a longitudinaldirection against the ten- 45 edge portion upset to form a cam and guide flange 58 having at one uppermost extremity a cam edge 59. The base plate 56 has an adjoining edge portion upset to provide a lateral plate 60 (Fig. 3), in which are formed slots 6! and 62, respectively receiving the spaced rods 42 and 44, which arrangement, in conjunction with the disposition of the sidewise guide edge 58 which overlies the outer bottom surface of the channeled upright 26, serves to guide the plate structure 56 for slidable movement up and down the pair of rods 42 and 44, a presser spring 64 being extended from the plate 56 and adapted to ride on a side of the upright 26 to assure smooth operation of this traveling latch rider.

Each of the latch members is provided with a cam nose 33 normally disposed by means of its respective spring 38 in the path of movement of the cam edge 59 on the rider plate 5658 as the latter moves in its upward course on the upright 28, thus effecting a pivotation of the several latches 3i) out of latching position (i. e., clockwise in Fig. 4) as the rider moves past the same, thus releasing the corresponding trap or shelf til from raised position.

Mounted on the plate 56 of the rider are twin dogs 66 (Figs. 6 and 7) each having offset nose portions G5 positioned for movement into the ratchet notches 52-54 in rods 42 and 44, such movement being efiected by means of twin spring members 6'! bearing against the dogs and mounted on a common pivot 68 which is supported between a pair of ears E9 struck-up from the plate 56.

Tripping means for the twin dogs 66 is provided in the form of a lever "it pivoted, as at H, on 9. lug 12 extended from the base plate 56, this lever iii having at one extremity a lateral arm If: which extends beneath each of the dogs 66 and is adapted to bear against the same to raise them out of engagement with the latch rods 42 and 44 when this lever it is depressed by manual engagement with a handle portion l4 formed at its opposite extremity. When thus released, the

. dogs :33 free the traveler 56 for movement up or down on the rods 424-'l.

The drive. rod 42 is reciprocated by means of a manually operated lever l6 (Fig. 2) pivoted on a suitable support, as at IT, within the cabinet It, and having at its inner extremity an enlarged end portion with an opening l9 therein, desirably in the form of a parallelogram. At its lowermost extremity, the drive rod 42 is provided with a laterally extending pin 43 which is disposed in the lever opening !9 in such manner that when the lever I6 is depressed the inner end portion thereof engages the pin 43 and urges the rod 52 upwardly and by virtue of engagement with the left-hand dog 66 urges the rider 56 a distance equivalent to that between two adjacent teeth 52, the other (right-hand) dog 66 of the pair preventing retrograde movement. In this manner the rider 56 may be moved step by step from a lowered position to the uppermost end of the rods 4244, successively releasing the traps or platforms 2!] as it does so.

As heretofore stated, the several selecting levers it are desirably coin-controlled, and in the present embodiment (Fig. 2) I have shown a coin chute I 8 schematically indicating an arrangement for depositing the coin in a control mechanism associated with the selecting levers [6, to free the same for movement in the manner described above, any suitable type of coincontrol being used for this purpose, one such mechanism especially designed for use with the present dispensing mechanism being shown in our co-pending application Serial No. 132,070, filed March 20, 1937.

Below the lowermost shelf of each group is a trapor shelf-setting lever 80 (Figs. 2 and 6) in the form of a wire having a handle loop Bl at one extremity and passed through an opening in the upright frame member 24 immediately below the hinge or pivot 22 of the lowermost shelf, the innermost end portion 82 of this setting lever being bent back in a somewhat U-shape to underlie the lowermost shelf and being engageable with the same in its released or depending position to pivot the shelf intoraised and latched position.

An examination of Fig. 6 illustrates in dotted lines a plurality of shelves or traps 20 in lowered position, and it will be apparent that when the lowermost shelf is raised by the lever 80 the overlying shelves will correspondingly be pivoted into partially raised position so that they may be easily engaged by the hand for further movement into completely latched or raised position.

Operation In summary, and with convenient reference betweenthe several figures, the device is first charged with merchandise by pivoting the resetting handle 8G to raise the lowermost shelf into latched, horizontal position and thereafter manually setting the overlying shelves in the manner just described, an article of merchandise 2| being placed upon each of these shelves. Previously, latch rider 55 will have been lowered into initial position by depressing the lever 10 and raising the twin dogs 56 out of engagement with the ratchet notches 5254 in rods 42-44 so as to avoid tripping the latches after the shelves are positioned.

In this condition the apparatus is ready for operation by deposit of a coin and manipulation of the coin control H; which will free the levers l6 for manual operation, only one such lever being freed, however, when the type of coin control apparatus referred to in the above-mentioned application is employed, so that upon the depression of one of the levers It against the tension of its normal positioning spring I1 (Fig. 2), the movable drive or ratchet rod 42 will be shifted upwardly to move the. rider 56 upwardly to the adjoining notch.

During this upward movement of the cam edge 59 on the upset edge portion 58 of the rider will engage the nose 33 of one of the latched members 30 and pivot the latter out of latching position, thus permitting the shelf supported thereby to drop and discharge its merchandise into a discharge chute M (Fig. 2) for gravitating movement into the bin M.

The foregoing cycle of operation may be repeated by successive operation of the coin control and one of the selecting levers is, until the rider shall have been moved upwardly past each of the pivoted latches 30 and until the uppermost one of the tier of traps or shelves is released and the machine thus emptied of merchandise.

Various modifications and re-arrangements of the structure described herein to illustrate a preferred form of the invention will occur to those skilled in the art, and it is to be understood that our intention is to include all such variations and modifications within the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. In a device of the class described, operating mechanism including a pair of bars having ratchet means thereon, said bars being supported in side by side relation, one of the same being reciprocable, a channel member adjacent said bars and extending collaterally therewith, a rider supported for reciprocable sliding movement by said bars and channel member, ratchet mechanism on said rider and cooperable with said ratchet means on said bars when the said one of the bars is reciprocated, to advance said rider in steps in a particular direction, releasable supporting dogs pivotally arranged in a series along the bottom of said channel member, said rider having a lateral hooked extension engaged around said channel member so as to move over said bottom thereof to successively engage said dogs and release the same one by one when the rider is advanced as aforesaid, and means for releasing said ratchet mechanism to permit restorative movement of said rider oppositely to said advancing direction.

2, In a Vending machine, operating mechanism including a pair of uprights arranged side by side in substantially parallel planes, ratchet means on said uprights, one of said uprights being reciprocable, a channel member extended collaterally of said uprights and having its channel bottom disposed in a plane substantially parallel to the planes of said uprights, a plurality of releasable supporting dogs arranged in a series along said bottom of the channel, a riding member supported for sliding movement by said uprights and channel in the direction of their length, said riding member having a portion arranged to move closely along said bottom of the channel member to engage and release said dogs, pawl mechanism coacting with said ratchet means and riding member and operable to efiect step by step movement of the riding member in a particular direction upon reciprocation of the aforesaid reciprocable one of the uprights, and means on said riding member and operable to move said pawl mechanism into ineffective position so that the riding member may be moved at will relative to the uprights.

WILLIAM PATZER. WALTER A, 'IRATSCH. 

